COME WORK WITH ME: Lecturer, Antiquities Trafficking & Art Crime, University of Glasgow

News

A rare 5-year, part-time (60%), teaching-focused, academic position 

Long-term academic positions in cultural heritage and art crime rarely come up, but today is your lucky day. We are seeking a highly-qualified person to join us for a teaching-focused Lectureship in “Trafficking Culture” in sociology/criminology, at the University of Glasgow. If you have expertise in any aspect of antiquities trafficking, art crime, cultural property law, or heritage repatriation research and teaching, this might be the job for you. I can promise you great colleagues, amazing students, and a research environment that has led to a lot of grant funding success.

There’s no internal candidate folks, this is a true open call.

Please see the official advert: https://www22.i-grasp.com/fe/tpl_glasgow01.asp?newms=jj&id=97155&newlang=1

The successful candidate will:

  • Have a PhD in a related discipline (criminology, sociology, archaeology, heritage studies, law, etc). There are some exceptions to this and the post is being advertised as allowing non-PhDs, but note that a PhD is almost always required.
  • Have demonstrable expertise in some aspect of antiquities trafficking, art or heritage crime, heritage repatriation, or cultural property law
  • Have a strong interest in online teaching and distance learning, preferably with online teaching experience
  • Be comfortable in a digital environment using online tools and helping students do the same
  • Be willing to be based in Glasgow (visas can be supported for this role in most circumstances, ask me for details)

So a few practicalities. Ideally the successful candidate would start soon after the interview which will take place January, but for a strong candidate, a later start is possible, so just be clear about your availability in your cover letter. Also, again, that this is a teaching position and is 60% of full time. If the successful applicant is interested in research, however, I am hoping to support them in the seeking of research funding for their other 40%, perhaps something in parallel to my upcoming ERC grant. This is no guarantee but we have been very successful in attracting research funding for topics in this field at Glasgow: several million since I started and money attracts money.

Some application tips:

  • They don’t directly ask you for a cover letter but write a cover letter
  • When they say respond to the job criteria point by point, do just that and use the numbering system in the advert (e.g. A2, C3)
  • Don’t write “see CV” in that “point by point” section. That’s the section where you make your case
  • We care about research, but this is a teaching role. Talk about teaching and how your research is part of your teaching
  • Make sure you’re talking about heritage crime stuff in your cover letter and “point by point”
  • Email me if you have questions about the role so I can clear things up

Currently I am the only “Trafficking Culture” researcher at Glasgow physically, but there is a vibrant “scene” for this research at the Uni. I’ll be building a team for the ERC grant which will include at least another Glasgow-based scholar. There are colleagues working on parallel topics in History of Art, Information Studies, Museums, and Archaeology and they are open to collaboration. We have a number of brilliant PhD students and a steady cohort of in-person and distance master’s level students who, to put it mildly, are engaged and stimulating. I love the work environment at Glasgow and the students are inspiring!

The person taking on this role will be mostly focused on online teaching of master’s-level students so they need to be tech savvy and into innovation and engagement in this area. They will also do some in-person master’s dissertation supervision within sociology and criminology and can also do PhD supervision. Further, we have plans to expand our online master’s-level courses in Criminology and this person will likely be the lead on that, herding cats..err…colleagues to that role.

Also, yes, I know it says that the PhD isn’t required, but in practical terms, it is. There are some cases where extensive teaching experience will count in the place of a PhD, but those cases are rare. If you are one of those cases, you likely know that you are.

Finally, and you heard it here folks, for the first year, the person in this position is mostly serving as my maternity cover. I’ll be back in action and ready for collaboration in January of 2020, but am hoping to meet up frequently over the year for coffee and chats.

Please do not hesitate to email me with questions about the role: donna.yates@glasgow.ac.uk